Blasphemy works only if one believes in that which is blasphemed, but it is nowhere said that faith is required to recognize or commit an act of blasphemy. Blasphemy is only felt by the believer but may be committed by anyone, intentionally or not. Satan encourages His entire infernal entourage to indulge in acts of blasphemy and to engage in taboos as long as we do not target His Infernal Majesty Himself, of course: there is self-deprecating humor, and then there is high treason.
The problem with blasphemy is that it shows contempt or disrespect for deities, sacred objects, and values or ethics that are considered axiomatic and inviolable. Granted, this sounds desirable, not problematic, but some perspective explains it. In societies that are unaware that all laws, rules, beliefs, and morals are the convergence of centuries of human negotiation, and instead believe they were handed down from above, irreverence and disregard for the veracity of the thought-to-be divine Law is a threat to the stability and integrity of the society. Punishment for blasphemy traditionally ranges from disapproval and demands for apology over ostracization, censorship, and persecution to corporeal punishment and physical eradication. In other words, it is not all that different from what happens in more enlightened societies when someone disregards the law and faces legal consequences.
There is an exception, however: if applied according to the Law of the Forbidden, blasphemy and taboo-breaking serve to fortify one’s belief. The single example of the well-known joke about the sailor who talks a nun into having sex, only to learn too late that the nun is a cross-dressing male, will suffice. It plays on the homophobic fear of being attracted to one’s own sex or the transphobic fear of being tricked by a homosexual, and thereby reinforces the idea that taboo sex is bad, and at the same time strengthens the belief that (legitimate) nuns are good and trustworthy people because of their religion. It is a Christian joke that bolsters one’s Christian values and beliefs. Satan, being of a marvelous intellect and mentally capable of imagining Himself in someone else’s (hoof-)shoes, can appreciate the joke on their premises but it obviously does not belong in His domain. Christians go to Heaven, and they can save it for when they get there.
Satan’s own Church has developed its own laws against blasphemy and taboo, despite its iconoclastic and irreverent outset in 1966. He did not pay much attention to when exactly these laws began to take shape, but it appears to the Devil that they were implemented when Peter Gilmore was given the role of the “administrator” of the Church on the Internet and thus gained first level control of virtually the entire membership body. It was from this position that Gilmore and his spouse could turn their thumbs up or down on opinions within The Church of Satan, and they were directed towards a singular goal: to make Gilmore feel validated.
Gilmore is a grandiose narcissist, and their behavior is directed by exceptionally low self-esteem that causes them to constantly seek validation, to feel better through making others feel worse, and to attack anyone who appears to expose their sense of worthlessness. (Satan represents man as he truly is, and therefore agrees that narcissists are typically worthless, but that is beside the point.) Gilmore gains validation by having admiration for Anton LaVey rub off on him, thereby riding on his coattails, and, of course, by feeling directly admired through praise or title—which is why already at the age of thirteen he felt entitled to an honorary title as a Satanic leader in The Church of Satan with nothing to show for it. Conversely, he cannot accept any “attack,” even if it is a simple statement of truth, on LaVey or himself, and went so far as to email his flying monkeys requesting that they coordinate attacks against those who spoke badly of LaVey or especially himself. It did not take long in the younger days of the Internet, before it had become part of everyone’s facilities, to establish the standard for both expected opinion and, as is the topic here, unacceptable talk and thought. There are now plenty of texts in The Church of Satan explaining that only enemies speak badly of the “Doktor,” and LaVey’s last spouse, the bizarre crossbreed between a Christian housewife and a groupie, Blanche Barton (originally, aptly named “Densley”), demanded that the sycophants of LaVey unite against their perceived enemies.
It has become taboo to speak of LaVey’s marriage to a 14-year-old in 1951, and acknowledging that LaVey’s second daughter, Zeena, became pregnant at the age of 13—despite Blanche Barton’s mention of the fact in one of her books—is permissible only along with the reminder that she later proved herself to be thoroughly unreliable and an enemy of her father. One must never remind others that LaVey’s self-narrative has been thoroughly debunked, but should instead inform those who mention it that overall, it was somehow true except in the details. And never mention the fact that LaVey died in poverty, demonstrating that if Satanism was all about success in the real world, as LaVey had maintained, there might be some truth to Michael Aquino’s belief that Satan revoked His infernal mandate, at least in the figurative sense that LaVey’s Satanic qualities and magical skills were inferor compared with those of your average Joe Schmoe. It is equally taboo to recognize The Church of Satan’s “alien élite” for what it is: a species that exists only within a world of spiritual pipe-dreams, or that “might is right” is a feeble feel-good fantasy. Any remark that LaVey relied on a variety of pseudo-scientific models and superstition that render several of his points null and void, and thus candidates for unceremonious jettison, is taken as proof of poor faith and lack of understanding: The Satanic Bible and LaVey’s other written works are flawless and in need of no revision—except maybe to add a preface by Gilmore.
Above and foremost, none but The Church of Satan, and those individuals who unconditionally agree that it is the only Satanic organization, are Satanists. Any other organization, and anyone who considers himself a Satanist but does not appreciate The Church of Satan, is deemed a heretic for this blasphemous stance. It does not help if the individual considers himself a “LaVeyan Satanist” (although The Church of Satan will be rash to remind anyone that “LaVeyan Satanism” is a pleonasm or even a hostile term for its insinuation that other kinds of Satanism could possibly exist), if he does not also unconditionally acknowledge The Church of Satan, and nothing else, as Satanism. However, if this demand is satisfied, it appears that one may reject arbitrary amounts of The Church of Satan’s doctrine, apply an arbitrary interpretation to its teachings, and add anything one fancies, and is yet a true Satanist. Satan thinks this is evidence that philosophy and doctrine mean little, and submission to Gilmore’s organization is paramount. This has become institutionalized in The Church of Satan. New members soon learn that recognition is earned through worship of Gilmore (even though he uses LaVey as a proxy) and hostility towards anyone claiming the name but not the affiliation and thereby not endorsing Gilmore. It is needless to say that Satan thinks that Peter Gilmore’s personal touch on Satanism has transformed LaVeyan Satanism into a toxic form that would be more accurately christened Gilmoron Satanism.
Satan thinks His church has become all about a herd collective and none about ideology. Anyone who is not part of Gilmore’s virtual community—a term that Gilmore shuns as it names his cravings for human acceptance, and therefore resorts to near-synonyms such as “arena,” “cabal,” “collection”, “universe,” or “movement,” to name just some, whereas Satan is not afraid to name the assemblage that Gilmore wishes for as adorers—is treated as religionists have traditionally approached the worshipers of false gods. Despite making no other demands on being a Satanist than thinking that The Satanic Bible resonates with one’s feelings, The Church of Satan feels strongly about the ideologies of other Satanic groups. If they are not LaVeyan, they are necessarily non-Satanic and therefore wrong and worse than Christianity, and if they are LaVeyan but loathe the strain of people that The Church of Satan attracts and encourages, they also are non-Satanic.
It is the very existence of these other groups and individuals that The Chuch of Satan objects to, not their viewpoints. Being an extension of Gilmore’s demand for personal attention, it cannot cope with others acquiring the spotlight (The Satanic Temple in particular is the target of their envy these days), and it leads to almost comical arguments against their legitimacy; for example, that they should cover their horns and not identify as Satanists, because it makes them look bad on the goals they pursue, or because they give Satanism a bad reputation. Gone are those days when The Church of Satan’s high priestess, Peggy Nadramia, defended the many neo-Nazis in their higher ranks by reminding its members that being a Satanist was as evil as the status quo could ever imagine, Nazis being a far lesser one, and that any concerns about a Nazi connotation were a Good Guy Badge that one had better discard. It seems that, today, The Church of Satan struggles to understand and muster the strength and self-confidence required to take the Devil’s name for oneself. Satan thinks that the sense of perspective of what He stands for was lost somewhere along the way.
The Gilmoron Satanists routinely deliberately ignore the openly stated goals and motivations of their “competitors” in order to construct a straw man to topple over. It is clearly very important that everyone is told, incessantly, although without results, that such groups are not Satanists, and The Church of Satan has made bedfellows with fundamentalist Christian actors on several occasions in their vain attempts to ensure that only The Church of Satan exists. Consumed by their counter-productive pride that helps their real enemies, no measure is too wretched in their rage against the blasphemy of renewal and alternative.
Satan thinks it is time to remind His followers of His sermon. Blasphemy challenges the beliefs everyone takes as model truth and rends the rusty padlocks of shrines with treasures that have lost their value. No dogma must be taken for granted, and no model deified to protect it from scrutiny and question. Satanists must apply blasphemy to their own beliefs and convictions, especially if taboo and met with resistance. Only that can prevent Satan’s own religion from sinking into the same rotting reactionaryism that is other religions.
